Pros And Cons Of Detrimental Standardized Testing

Detrimental Standardized Tests

It is just another day at school, but actually it is one of the numerous days where all children at public schools around the world are sitting down to take a nation mandated standardized test. Number two pencils are being sharpened, erasers collected, teachers are passing out booklets and answer keys, anxiety is a built up emotion that surges throughout the air. The teachers are beginning to read the instructions in the booklet that they are provided, stating “you may not open the answer booklet until I say so.” The kids are feeling anxious and tapping their pencils on their desks as they await the beginning of the test. The teachers write the beginning time on the board in front of the students and with that,

Teachers should be enjoying their time teaching and not be nervous or wary about it. However, having to teach to the test is taking the joy out of teaching for the teachers and out of learning for the students (Layton “Study” 1). In 40 percent of the schools surveyed, even if teachers wanted to use the results of the standardized tests to improve their next year’s class, it isn’t possible because the scores don’t come back until typically the following year (1). Job security, financial stability and professional worth have begun to hurt teacher performance over the years (Cox 1). Even recently, the state legislature in New York voted in favor of increasing the weight of test scores in teacher evaluations (Taylor 1). In reality, because so much is riding on the results of standardized tests, teachers have begun to not care about how they teach and what they actually believe in or what their method of teaching is. They started to believe more in the idea of being able to teach to the test to obtain the results that they need (Cox 1). A teacher’s value needs to be determined by many factors, and not just how their class or classes perform on standardized

Standardized testing has caused a massive debate where people are attempting to push for erasing the federal requirement that they need to test in math and reading, but others say that the tests are important for the students that are struggling in public schools (Layton “Study” 1). The number of standardized tests given to the students in public schools has drastically increased in the past decade and to this day students spend hours upon hours being taught to the test, followed by numerous amounts of hours actually taking the standardized tests (Layton “US” 1). In a recent study it has been determined that approximately, between the grades of kindergarten and 12th grade the average student is tested approximately 112 times (Cox 1). It is reported that the heaviest test load comes onto 8th graders (Layton “Study” 1). Standardized tests are said to take up an average amount of 25.3 hours during the school year (1). Because of this study, agencies are now recommending that states should have to limit the amount of in class testing time to less than 2 percent of the overall time of the school year (1). However, some states have started to limit the amount of testing that is being done at school by not doing a high school graduation test or by not doing high school exams (1). Even the testing activists that support